Hyrox organisers have announced immediate rule changes after a female athlete was allowed to keep competing while covered in her own faeces, before she went on to win an event in Beijing.
Joanna Wietrzyk, a 24-year-old fitness competitor from Melbourne, Australia, triumphed in the Chinese capital at the weekend despite suffering bowel incontinence during the race.
Images from the event showed Wietrzyk running, doing burpees and carrying heavy bags with her own excrement dripping down her leg.
After the race, Wietrzyk posted an image from her hospital bed to Instagram. "Go hard or go home they say... a win is a win," she wrote. "In all seriousness, thank you all for the support. I'll be back soon."
Race organisers were accused of causing a biohazard by letting the athlete continue competing. Hyrox bosses have since apologised for allowing Wietrzyk to finish the race and pledged to implement immediate rule changes.
What the rules said before
Before the incident, official event rules punished athletes for minor infringements such as littering on the course or clearing their nose on the floor. There were no rules relating to faecal matter.
In a statement posted to Instagram, Hyrox co-founder Moritz Furste apologised to those affected "directly or indirectly" by Wietrzyk's victory.
"Hyrox made a mistake by not reacting immediately during the race," he said. "In the end it is my job to foresee these potential incidents, and I did not."
Furste said Hyrox had made "rulebook changes immediately," adding: "As of this moment, there are new rules and procedures in place to prevent situations like this from happening again."
The affected areas of the course were isolated overnight for deep cleaning, contaminated equipment was removed and the venue carpet was replaced before the competition resumed the following day, it was confirmed.
What is Hyrox
Hyrox is an increasingly popular fitness event in which participants alternate eight times between running a kilometre and completing high-intensity stations.
The stations include a 1,000m SkiErg simulating Nordic skiing, a 50m sled push, a 50m sled pull, 80m burpee broad jumps, a 1,000m row, a 200m farmer's carry with heavy kettlebells or weights, 100m sandbag lunges and 100 wall balls, in which competitors squat and throw a medicine ball at a target.
The competition was launched in Germany in 2017, and events are now held in locations across the world.
Backlash from competitors
Male competitor Joe Ho said the incident could have lasting effects on those exposed to it. "For people who were exposed to that situation, there could be genuine physical and psychological consequences," he said.
"I paid Hyrox to provide a professionally organised and safe event. So while I understand the athlete perspective, ultimately my contract and expectation is with Hyrox. If the organisation accepts that something went wrong, why not offer affected participants refunds, credits or some meaningful form of accreditation?"
A US-based nurse, Erica Dodge, argued that Wietrzyk should have been stopped "immediately". "From a basic health and sanitation standpoint, the athlete should have been stopped immediately, and any contaminated areas should have been closed off and properly cleaned before other athletes were allowed through," she said on Instagram.
A podcast host questioned whether other athletes may have touched faeces left behind by Wietrzyk on the apparatus. "Because of the nature of this sport, you go to different stations," the host said. "So you do running, you do burpees, you do row machine, you do stuff like this with the medicine ball. If you are doing burpees and this person in front of you has stuff on their legs, you don't know what you're putting your hands on."
"But at the same time, it's like, you're in the middle of a race, how thorough can they be if they want to keep the race going at the pace it's supposed to be going?" the host added.
Hyrox response
In a statement released the day before Furste's apology, Hyrox said it would "examine what happened" and "take responsibility for continuing to improve".
"In this instance, an unforeseen situation arose in which protocols designed for elite competition and mass participation became blurred, creating ambiguity in how they were applied and understood," the statement said. "We recognise that this can understandably lead to frustration, questions and strong views within our community. Those concerns are legitimate and, as organisers, we must be prepared to hear them, examine what happened and take responsibility for continuing to improve. And we will."
Hyrox has surged in popularity in recent years, especially among ageing millennials and office workers.
